White Roses Dyed Blood Red

"Samuel maybe whoever the murder is, central target,"

"Either that or he is the murderer,"

Everybody turned towards the voice, and judging from the expression Hu Angli wore, he was dead serious.

"That's just stupid then, who would sign a dead body, with their name?"

"Don't get mad at me, but I may have hacked Samuel's phone,"

Yaorui glared at him, fuming.

What right did this bastard think he had to penetrate someone's privacy without asking?

"I found the video, the surveillance video I assumed he showed you at the banquet?" The three attendees nodded, "Well I watched it a couple of times and found something you should see,"

Hu Angli dragged a copy of the video onto the TV screen and pressed play.

"Look at the top right corner," He paused, "Notice anything strange?"

"The time," Said Yaorui, "It never changes,"

"Exactly, which means...?"

"It's fake," Ran Jiexu looked at his friend, a smile blooming on his face. "You're innocent!"

"Gebao, run a check on the video for any modifications," Gebao nodded and began her analysis.

While her friend was focused on the video, the group proceeded to the next step.

Connecting the dots.

One week before school started, there was a mass murder that happened all across the globe at the exact same time, while calls were made all at once. A day later, it was revealed that the emergency calls were made after the death of the caller, adding to the building mystery. On the same day, it was found that all the emergency calls were made by the same person after analyzing the calls globally. Later, it was found that there was a death in every city, town, and village, by then, the mystery of the deaths was skyscraping.

Police suspect that the calls were made by one person, but several thousand people have spread across the globe to kill, that theory was quickly thrown out after finding out that the calls were all made in separate locations.

Their next theory included voice changers, whether it was from the black market, online or handmade, that was what the police thought. They were correct.

But because a voice changer was used, they could never be able to find the culprits of the elaborate team of assassins. In an attempt to stop the murderers from escalating, voice changers were banned in several countries. Police raided home after home, seizing and arresting anyone with a voice changer in possession.

In several countries, those arrested were killed on the spot or executed.

According to what they knew already, there was no sign of a break-in or struggle when the victims were killed, and two days after the murders, the bodies belonging to the murdered victims disappeared.

Graves were dug up much to the horror of the victims family, they found nothing but an empty coffin.

All of which happened in the first week.

In the first week of school, Jiang Saimu was murdered, and they were sent to the hospital.

What they were looking to find was how everything connected or if they were all connected.

They knew that Jiang Saimu's death had something to do with the mass murders, the carvings on her body were the evidence, but how did she go from being scolded right in front of them by Teacher Gu to a dead carved body behind the school. According to the evidence, they were in one place at the same time.

So how?

"She could have been someone else?" Jiexu said.

"Not possible, the DNA samples matched," Responded Sheng Rong.

"Twins?"

"She was said to be an only child,"

"Time travel, she could have been killed then brought back into time,"

"So, you're saying that magic and supernatural powers exist?" They looked at Mu Jian Nu with mocking expressions.

"What? It might be possible! They might be an alien species from the 1101 galaxy that you mentioned. And as far as I know, aliens could be and do and be anything,"

"Yes, bu-,"

"DONE!" Gebao, "I finished the test, and everything came out positive, there were some recent changes made to the video. I'll try to find out what was changed."

Yaorui nodded and spoke, "No decision will be made until Gebao has finished with the video," She looked at Ran Jiexu, "Carry on,"

"But how do you explain the perfectly in synced calls?"

"Powers,"

"The evidence?"

"What evidence, they had freaking powers to get rid of that shit,"

"Are all your answers going to be power related?" Sheng Rong looked at him skeptically.

"Pretty much,"

"You used to be a model, right?"

"Yup, why? Have you fallen for my good looks?" Mu Jian Nu gave the girl next to him his signature pose.

"The fact that you were a model explains your idiocy, and in your dreams pretty boy,"

"Wahh~! How did you know that I dreamed about us? See Jiexu, even she has powers!" He looked childishly at his friend before he burst into laughter, followed by the others.

(Excluding Gebao, that girl can focus!)

Once everyone had calmed down, they decided to switch to a different topic to avoid any more distractions.

They proceeded to speak about the fainting incident at the dorms, the one that put them in the hospital.

"It might've been a kind of gas that passed through the ventilation systems,"

"Sheng Rong, you're into engineering, anything particularly life-threatening?"

"Nitrogen and then there's the one everybody knows is bad, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide," She paused for a few moments, "Nitrogen was probably the cause, if we were to breath two breaths of pure nitrogen we would most likely faint, it would be hard to detect since it was already in the air we breath,"

"That could explain the negative results,"

"Exactly!"

All of a sudden, Hu Angli jumped out of his seat, his eyes brightly lit, "Maybe that's what happened to your family Yaorui! Maybe nitrogen was somehow released, and that's what caused them to fall into a coma!" He grabbed her hands and went down to his knees, surprising everybody, "What if the person that did this was someone you are extremely close to?"

"What are you implying?"

"Samuel is not who you think he his,"

"That's bullshit if that's true then what evidence do you have?"

"Just give me some time, I'll prove it to you,"

"Why can't you tell me now? Do you need time to collect blackmail or something?"

"N-no, I have the evidence, but your safety comes first, a-always,"

He did not expect her to believe him, but he hoped, he hoped for a chance to set things right and to put things back on track. He wanted things to be the way they were before he left, before he...

"Look at me! I'm perfectly fine on my own Hu Angli, I don't need you to protect me,"

Yaorui looked him straight in the eyes. She looked and saw secrets and messages that were well hidden from her prying eyes.

After a few moments, she gave up on unlocking those secrets and relented.

"You have until the end of the school year to prove to me that you are innocent and that Samuel is not,"

"Yes, Ma'am," He did an army soldiers salute, tears brimming his eyes.

She didn't hate him.

He told himself.

She was just sad and disappointed in her. She never hated him.

He smiled warmly.

Not five minutes later, Song Gebao found out that the video had indeed been tampered with and that Samuel was guilty of his first offence.

At the end of the night, Hu Angli left satisfied with the results of the night's activities. He was happy knowing that he (and Gebao) had managed to put a roadblock in Samuel's plan.

____________________________

Li Yaorui sat quietly in the backseat of Jiexu's car. She was gazing out the window, her arms and legs crossed, and her bag rested on her l.a.p.

She sat there transfixed by the moving scenery, questioning their city's police for letting a 13-14-year-old boy drive a sports car. She thought about what just happened, all the evidence pointed at Samuel's direction, yet she still did not want to believe it.

"We're here," Ran Jiexu whispered, careful not to wake the slumbering glutton next to him.

"Thank you," She whispered back.

Quietly, she got off the car and made her way up the stairs of the hospital and through the rotating doors. The sound of a car engine fading into the background.

"Rui-er?"

Yaorui felt all her tension and nerves relax, hearing the familiar voice that comforted her in her hardest times.

No, Samuel was not a murderer. He is not evil. He's a soft and cuddly bear meant for her alone.

"Hey," She felt everything melt away when she saw the smile that greeted her. It was soft and gentle, exposing every inch of his love for her.

"Hi," She replied.

"Your sister was getting tired, so I got a few nurses to escort her back to her room,"

"Thank you,"

"It's nothing much, she's your family," She smiled a soft and gentle one.

He was nervous.

His hand scratched the back of his neck, and the tip of his ears was red.

All these little things she noticed, made up the boy she fell in love with.

Love.

She loved him.

Yaorui smiled.

She put down her things, took off her coat, and went to get changed into her pyjamas.

When she came out, her hair was down, her face still glistened from washing her face, and her breath smelled of the minty toothpaste she used.

She made her way to her wonderous boyfriend and squeezed herself under the blanket, careful not to hurt him.

"I missed you," She felt Samuel kiss the top of her head.

"I missed you too," She said.

"What do you say about watching some TV for a bit before bed,"

"It's not good for your health, but I'll let it slide this time," She snuggled closer to his c.h.e.s.t.

Smiling, Samuel reached for the remote beside him and turned on the TV.

"BREAKING NEWS: Infinite A's CEO and founder found nearly dead in a car explosion,"

"Big b-brother?"